The Fold

By Ron Mueller

Book 1: The Fold

Book 2: The Message

Book 3: Fold Wormhole

Book 4: Negative Fold

Book 5: Ripples I

• Language: English
• Publisher: Around the World Publishing LLC
• Release date: May 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781682232255

Ron Mueller

About the Author Ronald E. Mueller [e-mail] Ron grew up in what is now Flint River State Park in Southeast Iowa. The 170-year-old house Ron lived in is built into a hillside. It faces a 125-foot-high cliff towering over the little Flint River. The house and the land talked to him about; the passing of time, the struggle to conquer the land, the struggles people faced and the wonder of nature. He climbed the cliffs, crawled into the caves, dove from the swimming rock, collected clams from the bottom of the pond, gigged and skinned frogs for their legs. He trapped muskrats for fur, hunted raccoon in the dead of night, and with only a stick hunted rabbits in the dead of winter. His young life was outdoors, and nature tested him. He walked to a one room stone schoolhouse uphill both ways. A stern but warm-hearted teacher, Mrs. Henry was instrumental in shaping his character as she shepherded him from the fourth to the eighth grade. A Montessori before its time. It was a great way to grow up. His experiences inter-twined with snippets of fantasy lend themselves to the adventures he leads the reader through.

Book preview

1

Conscripted

At five in the morning the far and faint twinkling starlight and the hint of the Cheshire moon provided the only light. Bram moved cautiously as he took each step up the narrow foot path he had made through the ragged grayish green leafed sage brush of the desert.

A slight breeze put a chill in the air. He was glad that he had on his warm windbreak it held back the surprisingly frosty chill of the desert air.

At this time in the morning all vegetation looked black to his eye and seemed to challenge the existence of the path he had made in the days since he had arrived at the camp, that he thought of as his personal gulag.

The sharp brown glass like particles crunching beneath his hiking boots spoke of some ancient volcanic activity in the region.

He envisioned the large boulder, which was his destination, being pushed the glacier for thousands of years until one side was worn flat. This flat area had become his morning throne.

The large commanding boulder appeared ahead and loomed above him. Using several projecting knobs and several pock holes, he climbed up and claimed his East facing throne.

Soon after his discovery of the boulder and while sitting and waiting for the sun a friendly desert mouse befriended him and joined him each morning to watch the sunrise. His little friend always waited until the morning sun was ready to warm them both. He was a great listener and they got along admirably.

The sun broke over the far horizon and Bram turned his face to let the morning light fall on and warm it. He watched as Einstein, the name he had given his small, brown fluff of a desert mouse, scurried up and sat by his side.

In the flat valley below lay the airfield, the few houses with yards, the helicopter hangar and the expansive block building that housed his apartment, his lab and housed the rest of the people in what had become his home. The facilities were new, luxurious, and well appointed. He knew the whole complex had been built specifically to house him and everyone that was there to keep him in and to make his stay comfortable.

He had been surprised when told that a chef would cater to everyone’s desire. He knew that his current life was more lavish than he had ever experienced.

His previous years had been much more utilitarian. He had been an assistant professor living in Boston. He had discovered that the combination put him on the edge of starvation.

Yet, being held in luxury against his will and not being told where he was made him feel like a well-kept prisoner.

They would not tell him where in the world the compound was located. This was a point that irritated him and made testing of his theory more difficult.

He was dead set on finding out where he was being kept and on changing how the program, he was the center of, was managed.

For the last one hundred and eighty days, with the exception of a few trips east or to other secret locations, this had been where he was kept and protected.

He had established his morning routine that began by greeting the morning sun, then feeding and talking with Einstein and then hiking out into the desert.

He had logged many hours among the sage brush. He had surprised many unwary jack rabbits or had been surprised by the rattle of an angry rattlesnake upon whose territory he had encroached.

He learned that rattlesnakes were sluggish in the morning cold but chose to wear high leather boots with a metal lining slipped in.

The warmth of the sun and the aroma of a cup of hot mint tea held between his hands, slowly wore away the early morning chill.

The sun rose slowly and created a shadow that pulled away from the base of the boulder he was sitting on.

He had positioned a timing stone. When the shadow hit that stone, it was time to leave for his hike in the desert.

Einstein and he had shared many a morning in this manner. Bram thought he and the mouse would have been well known to each other had they been able to converse.

The routine was consistent.

Bram would arrive just before sunrise and climb to his perch. As the sun broke over the eastern horizon, the mouse would poke its nose out from a hole at the base of their mutual boulder and climb up the boulder and sit with him.

Bram had told Einstein all his woes at least once, maybe more. He had asked him for advice and to review his scientific theories. He now felt an attachment to his lone desert mouse and always brought it a morning treat of biscuit or cookie crumbs.

The mouse would turn his head and seemed to agree with many of the complaints and comments Bram threw his way.

The surrounding desert, with its sage brush and yellow desert flowers was his one escape from himself and the government that was now helping him fulfill his goal.

He was virtually their prisoner. Well treated but monitored and tightly confined.

Sitting out on this boulder or hiking through the desert was a victory that he had gained by consistently refusing to work if he was not given the time to get out.

He was sure he was being monitored even when he sat on his boulder. He wondered if those monitoring had seen him talking to Einstein. If they had Bram figured that by now, they would have taken him away in a straight jacket.

Each morning he would wish his mouse well and he would then head out on a brisk walk away from the complex in a specific compass heading. His first four excursions had been the main compass headings of North, East, South and West. For the last half, a year he had gone out hiking on one degree increments clockwise away from North.

Each time after approximately an hour a helicopter would arrive and tell him he must return to the lab. The first few times he hiked back. Then he began to ride the helicopter back. This saved him time and he enjoyed bantering with the pilot. She seemed to be about his age. He wondered how she had been chosen for this duty.

This morning, day 185, he was now traveling south plus five degrees. He was slowly plotting a circle with the center being the site of his lab.

Bram carried the instrumentation that transformed him into an altimeter. He was creating a detailed topographical map of the terrain around the lab. This information had already reduced the possible location of his lab to just three areas in the United States.

On a daily basis, in a morning project meeting, he requested the information about where he was, and he was always politely refused.

He continued to ask about the location every time there was a meeting. He had decided that until the program leaders changed their mind about how they handled the team he would not provide them with any more information about his space-time Fold breakthrough.

He thought of his breakthrough as having stumbled on the knowledge that when activated would change how travel through the universe would be achieved. He was close to opening the universe to humankind.

He was not going to let his breakthrough remain a secret but publishing the concepts of his ideas in a leading scientific journal had gotten Bram into his current situation. He had been sitting at his desk running his fingers through his hair in frustration when the doorbell rang. He looked through the peek hole and saw a very beautiful woman dressed in a black business outfit. He opened the door and she introduced herself as Ms. Erica Wilson with the US government.

Her shoulder length black hair that swept over a perfectly formed ear and exposed the right side of her smooth, flawless face placed her looks in the beautiful woman category. Her smooth introduction, smile and greeting put her in the good sales ability category.

Her smile though clearly was not genuine but lit up her face.

He took it all in as he listened to her polished introduction and her pitch about how his article had captured her imagination. He wondered about her imagination since he had not described anything that might be imagined but he invited her in and pointed to the couch.

She explained she was with NASA and invited him to come to Washington and share his knowledge with her team. The invitation was enticing and of interest to him. When she highlighted Elizabeth Miller renowned the theory of Ethical Behavior in Science as a member of the team and a person he had read, as a member of the team, he agreed to attend the meeting.

He asked a few questions about his theory, and it was clear that Erica had little understanding of his article but he was excited that his work had been deemed significant enough to get him invited to a NASA team meeting. It was important enough to send their project leader to personally recruit him.

Erica informed him that the meeting was for the following Wednesday. He was to review his article with a team that was focused on the same problem. She asked if he could make the meeting, as she reached into her purse. She hinted that there was a hefty salary if he made the team.

He said that the timing was very tight, but he would attend. He was about to tell her not to ruin things by trying to buy his participation but thought better of it.

Erica pulled out an envelope and handed him a plane ticket and hotel reservations as she stood to leave. She informed him that he would be met at the airport and escorted to the meeting. It was clear to Bram that she had come prepared for him to say yes.

He stood looking at the tickets in his hand as he realized that over the weekend, he would need to arrange to have his classes covered by his graduate students. He had not expected anything to happen this fast.

He looked out the window and watched as Erica got into a black limo. He was surprised at her ride. It seemed to him that she was well connected.

The weekend was a scurry of calls to his graduate students as he assigned them to cover his lectures.

On Wednesday as Bram was getting ready to leave to the airport, he was met at the door leading down to the street by an individual in a dark blue suit. Bram was intent on getting out to the walk where he expected to be picked up.

He excused himself and proceeded down the steps. He was followed down the steps and out to the edge of the walk.

There the man continued to engage him and invited him to meet with the president of the firm that was interested in funding his research. After giving Bram a card with the time and place for the meeting at a posh restaurant in Boston, he walked to a black limo and departed.

Bram had the card in hand as he got into the car taking him to the airport. He noted that the article had stirred the interest of more than the US government. He wondered what funding a private firm would pay.

He now had doubts about Erica’s team.

Clearly people thought his idea was important. He had two people that had come to his apartment and that alone gave him cause for concern.

He wondered why was there this sudden interest in his theories?

The flight to DC left Boston early. He took note that if things didn’t go smoothly with the US government, he now had a private company that was interested in supporting his research.

As Erica had promised when he walked into the arrival area, he saw a person holding a sign with his name on it. The sign welcomed him and had Erica Wilson written below his name.

He had not checked luggage, so he walked out with his escort to a waiting grey Ford sedan.

He was taken to NASA Headquarters at East Street Southwest. He felt good that NASA was so interested in his work. Its reputation was another reason that he had agreed to the meeting.

He wondered what group he had interested and what they wanted with his breakthrough.

He went through security and then was guided down a long corridor around several bends and finally guided into a meeting room where he was seated at the end seat on a long table.

Bram noted that all the seats had been taken. He looked down the table at the rather handsome Asian heritage person sitting directly across from him. Erica was sitting to that person’s right. Bram recognized only one person from the rest of the people at the table.

The meeting was called to order, and everyone gave a brief introduction of themselves. Jeffrey Mikelson sitting at the head of the table, introduced himself as the Space Technology Mission Director. He was currently leading a program named STCP (Space Time Continuum Program). He welcomed Bram and then asked everyone to introduce themselves.

As Bram listened to the introductions and watched the team’s interactions, it seemed to him that this team had been formed quickly and had done little work together.

When Elizabeth Miller, a person who he had admired and followed for years and now sitting to his left introduced herself, Bram stood and extended his hand. He said that she was one of the persons who had inspired him.

They shook hands and Elizabeth pulled him in for a hug. She whispered that it had all been set up for him and that NASA wanted him badly, but it was real. Bram smiled at her and nodded his head. If she was on the team then Bram was certainly interested.

After the introductions, Bram was asked to go through the presentation that he had brought with him.

The five-slide presentation that he presented to the team confirmed his suspicions. The team was of top talent, but they didn’t seem to know each other and seemed to only know what he had written. He noted that the few questions asked were general and lacked depth.

He thought that the team was fresher than just churned butter. He now understood Elizabeth’s whisper.

He concluded his presentation and after a final question and answer session, everyone on the team but Jeffery and Erica left the room.

Elizabeth patted him on his shoulder as she past him on her way out.

It was clear to Bram that the meeting had been rehearsed and that the participants had each played their part. He knew that the two persons remaining in the room were the decision makers.

Bram put his left hand on the spot that Elizabeth had patted. Bram knew Elizabeth, was globally known for her focus on human ethics in space exploration and would not have participated if she had not thought it important.

Jeffery made him the offer to get on team.

Bram was surprised that there was no small talk, and the offer came with a title, the highest government ranking and pay possible and a signing bonus.

Bram was offered the technical leadership of the team.

The salary offer was more than twice as much as his current salary and the signing bonus of five thousand dollars made it even more attractive. It made him wonder if the offer from private industry would be significantly more. When he asked for time to think about it, the atmosphere in the room changed.

Jeffrey and Erica looked at each other.

The answer surprised Bram.

Jeffrey quietly said, No!. We are aware of an offer that might have been made to you this morning and we know about several additional offers that will come with conditions that would seem to be more attractive than the one I just offered, but each would make you their captive.

We are concerned about you and about the US national security.

Bram listened as Jeffrey emphasized that he was giving him everything that could possibly offered, and it was an offer that could not be refused.

Bram realized that he was not being asked but told that he was on the team. Jeffrey went on to inform him that he was immediately being put under government protection because of the importance of his scientific work.

He had been given best possible deal but the choice about joining was not an option.

Bram asked how it was possible that he had been noticed by so many organizations at the same time.

Erica assured him that he was already on the most wanted list of people to either recruit, abduct or eliminate. She shared that his actions since his publication had been monitored and that he was put under guard since the moment she had met with him.

Two men in black waited outside of the meeting room. Jeffrey introduced them as FBI bodyguards that would guard him until he interviewed and selected four that would live with him. They escorted he, Jeffrey, and Erica to lunch.

There they briefly discussed the arrangements that were being made on his behalf.

He would retain his position on the MIT staff, but he would be posted as taking a sabbatical.

That was the end of lunch.

He and his two men in black were flown to an undisclosed location. He arrived in the dead of night and was escorted to a spacious and well-appointed corner apartment on the top floor of the building. He walked slowly through his new two bedroom apartment that had a huge common room and large open veranda. It was an apartment that could have been featured in one of the luxury apartment magazines. It made his apartment in Boston seem like a squatters shack.

The spacious exterior deck provided a place to sit and enjoy the desert view at sunset and it was large enough for him to practice his Tae kwon do and Aikido.

Windows formed two walls of the apartment. He was using one room for his office and the other, that featured a shower stall, for his bedroom. The apartment came with someone to cook his meals and with another person to clean it periodically.

It was clear that if he were prisoner he was a pampered one.

He was by his own estimation of the circumstances, a valuable asset that was getting the best treatment possible but, in all respects, he was now a prisoner of the government. He wondered if it was the same situation for the rest of the team.

He would soon find out who would be staying at the compound with him.

He decided to enjoy his deck and sit and relax.

When his belongings arrived, he arranged his meager belongings and developed a schedule that he would follow.

He recalled both of his martial arts master’s asking him what he planned to do with the capability and knowledge they were giving him.

He replied that he planned to do good.

They both seemed pleased with his reply. He really had no clue why he felt the need to pursue these martial art skills, but he had become a third-degree black belt in each.

Now he put the exercises to work to reduce the stress he felt by his current situation.

Tae Kwon Do and Aikido became his early evening exercise routine.

He added the early morning hikes into the desert to his exercise routine.

That is where he met his confident and counselor Einstein.

He thought about the fact that he had been given a brain that had a capability that was taking him on a journey that if he succeeded would be change the world.

He wanted that to be used to do good.

This morning like all the mornings for the last six months, he said good day to his pet mouse as he left the boulder. Bram then focused on his footing as he walked carefully down the rocky slope. This was his one hundred eighty fifth radial hike away from the compound. At the bottom, as he rounded a ragged boulder about twice his height, he came to a dark gapping opening. A cool breeze washed past the beads of sweat that had already formed on his brow.

The breeze surprised him. He was not sure what he had discovered but he was intent on exploring it. He pulled out his flashlight and entered the ten by ten-foot cave entrance.

The breeze meant that there was another opening somewhere ahead. He let the breeze guide him through the dark cave. His light bounced off the smooth well-worn ancient path and he slowly made his way forward.

He realized that what he was doing would certainly confuse his routine helicopter pickup pilot.

Amy began suiting up, it was time to retrieve Bram from his radial hikes away from the compound. She was not sure why he went out on his morning walks, but she had come to believe he was mapping the surrounding areas. Anything else made little sense to her.

She rated her current assignment as an easy one but very visible. She had heard this assignment was high up on the recognition list of special assignments, so she had volunteered in hopes it would look good on her service record. She was one of a short list of volunteers and she was the only female.

The assignment was not highly sought since it was an assignment that put a person in the middle of nowhere. She however was happy to have gotten the assignment.

She knew her performance ratings had always been high. What she wanted was a gold star in her record to improve her chances at getting accepted into the space program. She wanted to be an astronaut and the barriers leading to that opportunity were many.

She finished suiting up and walked out to her helicopter. The red beauty sat on its skids on the landing pad. The tail rotor with a shark like fin above the bright red rotor shrouding and the long thin white tubular connection to bright red main body brought a dragon fly to her mind.

But her toy had a sleek body that could host at least seven people and if necessary, it also had a winch to lift a person from the ground. It was the best ride she had ever piloted. She looked forward to each of her morning flights.

Amy climbed into the cockpit, went through her flight checks, and brought the engine to life. She slowly lifted off the pad and headed out on the heading of one hundred